Angels In The Storm

David found himself in an impossible situation. He had just returned from battle to find his home burned and his love ones taken captive (1 Samuel 30).

I wonder if He complained to God, “How much can I take? What do you expect me to do now?

Have you ever been in that situation, one that seems entirely impossible, one that has stretched your human strength to its limits?

When I get in these situations, I think of Elijah in his face off with the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel (1 Kings 18). The altar was ready. The bull was prepared as the sacrifice. The prophets of Baal cried out to Baal all day long. They cut themselves and called for the fire from heaven to come down and burn up the sacrifice.

Nothing happened.

Then it was Elijah’s turn. He was not satisfied with business as usual. This was going to be a mighty demonstration of God’s power. There was to be no mistaking , or confusion, or doubt that El Shadai had shown up . . . with fire from heaven.

So Elijah made His task harder. He knew His God. Was anything too hard for God?

Elijah built an altar of twelve stones and dug a trench around it. The bull was cut in pieces and laid on the wood on the altar. Elijah commanded the servants to fill four water pots and pour it on the altar . . . not once but three times until the trench was filled with water.

“Let’s make it as hard for God as we can, because then the miracle will be all the more dramatic.”

Well, you know the story. Elijah called down fire from heaven. It burned up the sacrifice, the wood and even the dust. It licked up the water in the trenches and left nothing but scorched earth.

Is anything too hard for God?

Hanging On To Hope

A situation like that comes to mind as I write this article. I had experienced a financial meltdown of mega proportions. My house payments were over a year behind. The powers that be knocked on my door one day and said, “You have to go. We’re repossessing your house. Pack up your stuff. You have to leave.”

My brother sent enough money to rent a large storage locker and friends came to help me stuff all the contents of my house into the locker. It was piled clear up to the ceiling. I couldn’t get to anything without climbing to the top of the pile and crawling into the locker to find this or that, whatever I needed in the moment.

Then, came the all important question, “Where am I going to live, now?”

I had been to a Christian retreat center about 80 miles north of the Twin Cities several times to pray. I thought that was my best option. When I arrived, the owner rented me a 12 by 15 cabin for $15 a day, and there I lived for several weeks.

There was another problem. The CV joints on my old Camry were wearing out, making a clicking noise that kept getting louder and louder. I didn’t have the money to fix the problem, so I just kept on going, hoping for the best.

Angels In The Storm

My cabin was in the country. One night I decided to take a drive and spend some time praying. It started to snow pretty hard as I drove the backroads thought the country side.

Suddenly, the noise from the worn CV joints became markedly louder. “Oh, oh! This is probably it. Anytime now, my car is going to stop moving forward.”

I was just coming up to a sports bar all by itself in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by fields and forests. I turned in, limped to a parking spot in front of the establishment and the car stopped. Something had let go. It was done for.

“Now what?”

Well, I was hungry, so I decided to use what money I had left to go in and eat. There were only two other customers in the bar, a husband and wife. I took a seat at the bar a couple stools down from them and ordered a pizza. Halfway through, we struck up a conversation. Eventually, I shared my predicament with them and they offered to take me back to my cabin.

Thank you, Lord!

It was a Friday night. The cabin was warm, heated with electric heat, a convenience I greatly appreciated . . . but I had no food and the week-end was coming. I had a container of spaghetti that was probably moldy, stiff and dried out . . . and a box of cornflakes, but no milk.

The owner of the small farm retreat lived only 150 feet away, but I was too embarrassed by my “stupid” predicament to ask the family for food. I would fast for the week-end . . . and hopefully on Monday I could figure out a way to get my car fixed and get some food. I settled in for the week-end, passing the time by finding free things to watch on the internet, with ample prayer time in-be-tween.

“God, here I am, like Elijah in the back of the cave . . . exhausted, discouraged, with no money and no food. What will you do now? Send the ravens with food? I have no wheels, as you know. Cornflakes with water doesn’t sound too good right now. I think I’ll pass.

What now, Lord?

What David Did

What must have been going through David’s mind? He was no doubt exhausted, having just returned from battle. How devastated was he? His wives and children were gone, as were the families of his men. Verse 4 says that all the people wept until they couldn’t weep any more.

His men . . . oh yeah. They turned on David, blaming him for everything. They even threatened to stone him. Could it get any worse?

So what did David do?

What could he do?

David wasn’t a quitter. That much was for sure. He had endured horrible circumstances for several years. Though he had been anointed king, the sitting king, Saul, wouldn’t give up the thrown . . . and he had been chasing David, trying to hunt him down and kill him.

David had become a fugitive, forced to move his family nine times in the previous year to escape from King Saul. Finally, there was no place to go in Israel, so he fled to his enemies, the Philistines and persuaded them to let him live among them and join their fighting forces. Now his home was burned to the ground and his wives and children carried away.

What did David do?

He encouraged himself in the Lord.

Life deals us some really awful things. Just when you think it can’t get any worse . . . it get’s worse! In this kind of situation, we have two choices: we can lay down and quit in complete despondency – remember Job’s wife who told him to curse God and die – or we can pull up our bootstraps, cry out to God, and figure out our next steps. There is always a way out. Somehow, we have to maintain a positive attitude and keep moving forward.

David did the latter. David chose to “encourage himself in the Lord.”

Food And A Car

So, what happened to me in the cabin?

On Monday I was referred to a repair shop that turned out to be very reasonable. My friend Ivan, drove out from Minneapolis and took me to the shop. The shop towed my car in and fixed it. My brother sent money for the repair, which was surprising reasonable. It turned out to be the trans axel, not the CV joints. I was in business again.

In my homeless condition, I was doing another outreach event. With some of the money from that and from the sale of my family land, I was able to rent the bottom of a duplex where I lived for two years.

Everyone needs encouragement, especially when the circumstances seem impossible. When there is no one else to encourage you, you must turn Godward. Encourage yourself in the Lord.

The name of the Lord is a strong tower; The righteous run to it and are safe. (Proverbs 18:10 NKJV).

In the next segment, to be posted next week, we will further explore how you can “encourage yourself in the Lord.”